Steve Smith &Vital Information - 30th Anniversary Tour
Ottawa Tavern, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Saturday, June 23, 2012

I am a fan of jazz fusion music, and certainly have some instrumental CDs which feature drummer Steve Smith.    Steve may be more remembered for his time with the melodic rock platinum selling Journey, during their peak years in the 80s.    But, Steve is also a very versatile and skillful jazz drummer, which led to him forming Vital Information in the early 80s.   Having heard the band was going to be performing at Grand Rapids "Ottawa Tavern", I knew it was a show not to be missed.

The band featured Steve on drums, Tom Coster on keyboard and accordion, Baron Browne on bass, and Vinny Valentino on guitar. 

The band played two sets.   For the first set, the crowd looked to be around 75-80 (maybe 100).    I am not familiar with the song titles, so I am not able to include those.   During the opening song, you could tell something had gone wrong with the drum kit, but we didn't know exactly what was up.    Turns out, Steve had broken the bass drum head - something he said he hasn't done in 30 years.    So, they took a short break while Steve and their tour assistant changed the head.   This involved moving around most of the drum kit, which seemed to effect the rest of the set.    Although they sounded great, they seemed to be a bit "off" their groove.    The set included a great drum solo by Steve (very melodic), a nice ballad featuring Tom on the accordion, and some great "George Benson" type guitar work from Vinny.   While they had the accordion out, the band played a Zydeco flavored tune, which was a nice change in style.    Steve also featured his skills at "Konnakol", which he told us was "the art of performing percussion syllables vocally."    It is pretty cool, so look it up.   After about 90 minutes, they ended the first set.

I got to stay for the second set, with a small crowd of about 30 of us - WAY to small a turnout for such a quality band.    But, what I first noticed was that the band seemed more relaxed.   The entire set seemed more funky and featured the entire band more.   This time we got bass solos, extended guitar solos, and less drum solo work.    The set did feature entirely different music, and no technical difficulties (no broken drum heads).    Generally speaking, I liked the second set better, if only because it seemed like the band was having more fun.

I truly appreciate how Ottawa Tavern managed to book this show - a great catch for Grand Rapids.   It is a shame that the Grand Rapids jazz fans didn't get out to support this show.    Big missed opportunity.   

Thanks for my friend Mike for joining me for the evening, as well as running into fellow bass player Randy Goble.

Rating:  8 out of 10